Late Bloomer
by Velvet95
Summary: Pro-bending circuit submission: Round 1 Kya has a choice to make, but her brothers and a certain Chief of Police are not making it easy...
**[A/N]**

 **Waterbender Task: Write about someone trying to decide between three choices.**

 **Prompts:**

 **Word: triple**

 **AU - Three siblings**

 **Restriction: 3rd Person PoV**

 **Bonus: Water element**

* * *

Kya sighed in irritation as she made her way along the deck of her brother's sailboat. Her destination was the rope hammock slung beneath the bowsprit where she could lie peacefully over the calm sea below, as far away from the argument happening below decks as she could manage. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the soft slapping of the water against the hull, breathing meditative breaths of the salty sea air. She was dying for a smoke, but her cigarettes were in her bag and there was no way she was going back into the cabin to retrieve them.

"Nice moon," Bumi commented. She turned her head to see her older brother sitting cross legged on the deck behind her. Sweetly resinous smoke curled lazily around his head as the end of the joint flared red in the darkness.

"Want a hit?" Bumi offered, his voice slightly husky from the smoke.

"God, yes." Kya accepted the joint and inhaled, ready for the soothing euphoria that inevitably followed. "Whoa, this stuff is good. Where did you get it?"

"Would you believe Opal?"

Kya snorted. "Yes. She probably got it from her mom."

"Almost certainly."

Below decks there was a last round of shouting, then the muffled thud of two cabin doors slamming.

"Finally," Kya sighed. "Tell me why we invited Tenzin and Lin to come on this trip again?"

Bumi shrugged. "If I recall correctly, that was your idea."

"I must have been out of my mind."

Bumi laughed. "My dear sweet sister. I have no idea why you invited Tenzin unless it was out of guilt or possibly as a favor to Pema, but you and I both know very well why you invited Lin."

Kya frowned, and took another long drag, feeling the smoke burn pleasantly in her lungs before sighing and returning what remained of the joint to her brother.

"I'm a fool."

"Yes," agreed Bumi pleasantly. "But so are we all, really."

She glared at him.

He held up his hands in mock surrender. "Just go talk to her, okay?"

The cabin was dark and warm. Kya could just make out the still form of her friend lying rigidly on the bunk. Her low growl floated out of the darkness.

"Your brother is an ass."

"I know." Kya settled down next to Lin, taking care not to get too close. "I'm sorry. I thought he might leave his stick home for the weekend." She felt the mattress sink as Lin adjusted her position.

"His stick?"

"The one he keeps up his ass."

Lin snorted softly. "You're lucky I did leave mine at home, given that I smell illicit substances about your person."

Kya rolled her eyes as she turned onto her side, propping her head on her hand. She chose to ignore Lin's comment. "It was very sweet of you to come to my defense."

"He had no business telling you what to do," Lin huffed. "It's your life and your right to choose whether you want to spend time traveling to the different Air Temples to help train their healers or go back to Harbor City."

"You might have been pushing it by saying you felt sorry for Pema," Kya said playfully, poking Lin in the side.

"Why? It's the truth. He always thinks he knows what's best for _everyone_ ," she muttered, her tone scathing. "I hate the way he implied it was your duty to give your life to the Air Nation because you were Aang's daughter. He's made that his job, he doesn't need to make it yours too."

They lay next to each other in silence for a while, the quiet slosh of water against the hull almost hypnotizing.

"So you're going to go back to Harbor City?"

There's a new tone in Lin's voice that causes Kya's heart to flutter in her chest, a note of longing she's certain the gruff cop would deny. For the first time she allowed herself a small ray of hope. "Well, Mom would certainly like for me to come back and work with her at the clinic."

"But…"

Kya sighed. "She has many capable assistants and it would be more to have my company than any real need." She stretched out her hand and let her head fall against her arm, still facing her friend. She could make out Lin's face, eyes locked firmly on the ceiling. "I'd like to do something a bit more challenging."

"So after getting into a huge fight with Tenzin about not forcing you to do it, you're going to spend years training all the Air Nation healers after all?" Lin's tone was resigned rather than angry. "That's fantastic. Glad I could make a fool of myself for your amusement. I'm sure you'll love the opportunity to flit around the world again." She rolled over and faced the wall, the set to her shoulders making Kya ache to run her hands soothingly over the tense muscles.

"Lin-"

"I'm tired, Kya. I just want to survive the rest of this relaxing little jaunt you've dragged me on and go back to work." The sarcasm dripped from her voice, but now Kya was sure she heard the little tremor underlying the words. She grit her teeth and pulled Lin roughly back over to face her.

"No, you idiot," she snapped. "That's not what I really want to do either."

Lin blinked in shock. "Kya, what the hell?"

Kya took a breath, reigning in her temper. "For someone who earlier was so eager to preserve my right to make my own decisions you seem awfully ready to make assumptions about what I might choose for myself."

Lin sat up.

"If I recall correctly," said Lin acidly, "you invited us all along on this _pleasant_ excursion to talk to us about these two offers you had been given. Both offers, I might add, have you flitting back away from Republic City. Again."

"Yes, Lin," Kya sighed, feeling the exasperation creeping back over her. "Those were two choices I had been offered, but there's a third option I'm considering, and that was the one I was actually hoping to talk about with the people most important to me." She rolled over and stood back up. "Though I must have been out of my mind to think it was a good idea."

"Where are you going now?"

"You don't seem to be enjoying my company, so I thought I'd leave you the cabin."

"Fine." Lin snapped. "You're so good at running away."

What little control Kya had exerted over her temper dissolved. "Oh that's rich, coming from you!"

Lin stood up bringing her nose to nose with the silver haired woman, enraged. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You run away all the time," shouted Kya. "In your head. Always working, never letting anyone in. It's like it's a crime for you to aspire to happiness. I practically had to kidnap you to come out with us this weekend."

"I have responsibilities, something I'm sure is an alien concept to you," retorted Lin hotly.

Kya's jaw dropped. "Thank you, Lin," she finally whispered. "You've certainly helped rule out my third option."

"Wait, Kya-"

"Goodnight."

The click of the door shutting behind her was very loud in the silence.

Kya wriggled around in the rope hammock, trying for a more comfortable position. _Oh well,_ she thought wryly. _Won't be the first time sleeping out in the open_. She closed her eyes, wondering what the hell she was going to do with her life. She wasn't _completely_ opposed to idea of helping train the Air Nation healers, but was utterly uninterested in Tenzin's insistence she adopt the monastic life while she did so. She was no monk, and certainly no saint. Eating vegetarian she could manage, but smoking and drinking were her beloved vices and she wasn't going to give them up for anyone.

 _Maybe I could-_

"What was the third option?"

Kya eyes popped open. "What?"

Lin stood awkwardly on the foredeck; her bare feet had been silent against the wooden deck, muffling her approach. She stared fixedly out towards the lights of Republic City in the distance, not meeting Kya's gaze.

"You said you were considering a third option," she mumbled. "What was it?"

Kya turned back to her contemplation of the water. "It doesn't matter. It's not possible."

Lin sat down on the deck, her moves stiff and uncomfortable. "I thought you told me impossibility was a state of mind?"

"I thought you never really cared about anything I said."

"I-" Lin cleared her throat. "I'm sorry about what I said to you."

Kya's laugh was incredulous. "Whatever you've done with Lin you will almost certainly suffer insane amounts of retribution and by the way I don't have any money for a ransom."

"What?" Lin asked, baffled. Kya smirked as she saw realization dawn on the taciturn woman's face. "Oh, hah. Very funny. I'm sure I've apologized to you before."

Kya cocked her head as she considered it. "Nope, I don't think you have."

"Okay fine. I'm apologizing. Sincerely. Profusely. I just…"

Kya waited patiently in her hammock.

"It makes me angry how much I'm going to miss you." Lin whispered.

If Lin's apology had surprised Kya, this latest admission rocked her. "It does? You will?"

Lin abruptly rose to her feet, proceeding to pace along the deck, her voice stuttering with emotion. "Every time you show up, I feel like I'm being torn in half. Part of me is thrilled to see you and the other part dreads when you'll walk away again."

"You never said anything," said Kya, shocked. "Not once have you _ever_ said _anything._ "

Lin's lips twisted in a pained smirk. "Would it have mattered if I did?"

Kya was back on the deck before she realized she was moving, her fists clenching Lin's shirt as she shook the other woman. "You idiot! I kept coming back because of you! I couldn't stay away." She dropped her hands in defeat. "And then I'd leave because of you, too." She felt the hot trail of tears on her cheeks. "I'd get these flashes of thinking you wanted me around, but then every time you'd turn your back on me. You were too busy dealing with Raiko's protection detail or the latest turf war between the Triple Threats and Agni Kai, or maybe I just annoyed you too much when I wanted to spend time with you, and you'd act like I was such a burden. It just... It _hurt_ , Lin."

"I was a fool." Lin stretched out one trembling hand. "I was terrified of what I felt for you and I pushed you away." She took a deep breath. "What I still feel for you." She crossed her arms defensively over her chest. "I was never good enough for my own family, for Tenzin, for the city," she said brokenly. "How could I ever be good enough for you?"

Kya surged forward, crashing her lips hard against Lin's. The other woman stiffened, then responded with increasing fervor. Her fingers gripped Kya's hips as she pulled her closer. After a long moment they broke apart, breathless with wonder.

"You've always been good enough for me, you cranky pain in my ass," Kya murmured. "Frankly you're too good for that hellacious city, let alone my idiot brother."

Lin snorted, then pressed her forehead to Kya's and closed her eyes. They stood quietly together for a moment.

Then Kya ran her hands up Lin's back and ran her fingers through dark hair, burying her face against a warm neck. "You."

"What about me?"

"You were my third option, Lin. I've met some great people who are trying to open a health clinic in a poorer part of the city and they want me to be their head healer. It would give me something useful to do, and you have been different lately so I had started to think-" she paused, gathering her thoughts. "I _hoped_ maybe you would want me to stay."

Lin wrapped her arms tightly around the silver-haired healer. "Please. I don't ever want you to leave again."


End file.
